Black Lives Matter…

“Ignorance and prejudice are the handmaidens of propaganda. Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will, and must be defeated.” ― Kofi Annan

“Race doesn’t really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don’t have that choice.”

“Police violence comes at what Walidah Imarisha, echoing Angela Davis, calls “the intersections of intimate and social violence.” Police are not killing unarmed Black people because the thought occurs to them out of the blue. Behind these murders lie all sorts of institutional forms of violence. Likewise, poverty and gentrification do not form from thin air. They are the result of laws, regulations, contracts, red lines, predatory loans, and other systemic oppression made in the name of a society hiding behind a cloak of equality, freedom, and the American dream. They are the by-products and enforcement tools of white supremacy.”

Some cases are more clear-cut than others, but all of them raise questions about the use of force — like shooting to kill — in policing. They also prompt scrutiny of how cops confront people with mental illnesses: